First things first, where does our name come from… Sola 5 is the name of a Christian association and the name Sola 5 comes from the five solas of the Reformation:

• Sola Scriptura – Scripture (Bible) alone
• Sola Gratia – by grace alone
• Solus Christus – Christ alone
• Sola Fide – by faith alone
• Soli Deo Gloria – glory to God alone

Back to the race...
My wife and I have wanted to do the Swazi Xtreme for a long time (since before we even got married), and this year we decided to go for it. We would be racing as a pair.

We travelled to Malkerns from Nelspruit, and got very excited when we saw the other teams at the Oshoek border post. We arrived at Malkerns and set up camp. It was awesome to just be there and we thanked God for a safe trip and providing the seconds, finances and all the rest needed to just be there. We got our maps, and plotted the points from the master copy, attended race briefing, had delicious lasagne for supper and had a good night’s rest!

Friday morning we were up before dawn, and got our last minute instructions. I was a tad nervous I didn’t really understand the bearing business… this could mean trouble! We lined up at the start… “GO!” and off we set, on a journey of epic proportions! At first we followed some pro teams, but realised our mistake before too much damage was done. We found Bruce and David of Team Wasp and after discussing things with them, we soon got the hang of the bearing thingy, and clipped our first checkpoint, what a relief and confidence builder! We got to the swim and afterwards, my wife (a physiotherapist) strapped Bruce’s ankle. We made our way towards the island, trekked up a hill under the powerlines, and then swam across a the canal where Sakkie and his Palaborwa team raced past us. We ran down to the river too soon and got ourselves in a bit of a mess. We had to bundu bash back up to the canal. We left the canal and jogged next to the sugar cane. We met some teams near on the river and crossed with them. We met some other teams who told us about the goal posts and found the PC easily enough after that. We hiked up the mountain with Deon Steyn and his WRAK team. Jogged down to the first transition and where our seconds took good care of us.

We got on our bikes for what should have been a pretty straight forward bike leg… after clipping the CP at the school, we took the left turn option… big mistake, the road became 50 cattle paths and we struggled along and finally got to the trig beacon at some 1100m + above sea level. From there we went straight down the mountain and got onto the correct track. Some teams stopped to check us coming down and then carried on. We clipped the next CP and then pushed our bikes down the hectic downhill. We arrived at the next transition a bit tired but did not want to rest to long, we needed to make the most of the daylight hours while going on the kloofing / 20 hour hike. We left at 17:00 as Due South were coming in to the transition area. We jogged along next to the river and just as it was getting dark lost the trail. A team zipped past but we don’t know who they were. We finally met Red Ants, and went along with them until we got the gorge to look for CP10 and CP11. Thanks guys for helping us out…

We met the two bearded brothers Hein and Celliers, we would spend most of the night with them. We hiked up the gorge, and got to some rocks next to the river where we got to use our safety rope to climb up. My wife commented on being willing to be a second but never again wanted to anything as crazy as that again. We met two other teams and together got to CP 11… I wanted to go on up the gorge and over the mountain, but the rest were keen to go back down, and then along the Ngwenpisie River to CP 13… I learned a valuable lesson here, don’t always go with the crowd! The scrambling, swiming and bundu bashing along the Ngwenpisie River was not fun and I slipped once and fell about 5 or 10m, but no serious damage. Phew, it was close though! I grabbed some branches otherwise I would have slipped / fallen another 20m into the river! All the prayers of friends and family for protection were being answered. I was praying fervently for a way through this mess, and we managed to follow a path made by another team. God answers prayer! The bearded guys decided enough was enough and at about 3:30 decided to sleep until morning, we decided to press on… we found the hiking trail to CP 12 just as the sun was coming up. We had something to eat and filled empty bladders at the Lodge. We hiked down to CP 13 and then back to 12 and along the little stream up to the school. We met team Freegone along the way and walked along with them for a while. We walked down to CP 14 and back up with no problems.

We had had no sleep yet and were pretty tired, but got the transition area! Our seconds told us about the award winning bike falling off episode… in all honesty it was not their fault, it was my useless bike rack! There was not serious damage done though and after a quick bite and shower we slept for about 2 hours. We left the transition area at 16:30. Enjoyed the down hills to the tar road and were feeling much better after the sleep. We met up with Freegone, and they told us we had cycled to far down the downhill and missed the turn off. Oops, so we turned back and with darkness setting in once again we ventured off in search of the little school. We asked the locals for directions and they were most helpful, and with their help found the school with no problems. We then cycled back toward Malkerns along the tar until we once again overshot the turnoff to the next transition area. After more local help we got the right turn off and cycled along in the dark. It was uphill most of the way and we did a lot of pushing… a few teams passed us, they were going down to the paddle leg and we swapped some brief encouraging words.

We got to the transition at about 22:30 feeling quite perky and decided to nail the abseil and then sleep until 4:00. The abseil was good fun, and the climb back up exhausting.

Woke up with much difficulty, it was freezing outside! Cycled down and took a sneaky left turn again, perhaps too soon and ended up in some plantations. We cycled straight past the turn off to CP 24 and hit the tar road… turned around and cycled back to the turn off and got the gate and eventually T7. Met up with Bloed and Omo and decided to walk with them to the start of the paddling leg, thanks for the company guys.

Paddled along the canal wondering why we put ourselves through such rigors and why we do adventure racing. After what seemed ages, we got the canning factory and hauled our boat out of the canal and walked to the finish line, tired but elated and thankful for God’s protection during a race where we could have “died in a 100 places”! We were XL!

Closing thoughts and comments…

• While sitting in a transition area with little black kids staring at us, I thought, we have more stuff in our bakkie then they probably have in a life time!
• While cycling down from the transition area at the abseil, we passed some guys carrying stuff up the hill, for the people there, every day is Swazi Xtreme all the time. Their whole life is a struggle and they have to carry wood and water and anything else for many kilometres.
• My newest oxymoron, steering an ARK!
• “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for Thy rod and Thy staff do comfort me!” Psalm 23. When the going was tough, (and it often was), it was faith in God that kept us going, and I believe He strengthened us! So if there is any praise of honour for finishing the race, it goes to Him, He made us, He protected us, He kept us going! Thank you Father!